While the Tunisian street is preoccupied with the repercussions of the political crisis that followed the suspension of Parliament and the dismissal of the elected government, a retired diplomat appeared on the air to spark a debate over the relationship with Israel.
On private radio Mosaique, former Tunisian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ouanes said that his country does not consider Israel its enemy.
Wanes said that Tunisia has no enemy, and called on Tunisian diplomats to clarify this position, "Our enemy is occupation, colonialism and the policy of racial discrimination."
Wanes was not satisfied with this position, but pointed out that "Tunisia was the first Arab country to consider the safest policy to negotiate with Israel on the basis of the partition resolution issued by the United Nations."
"Tunisia has always been against colonialism and discrimination, and if Israel leaves the Palestinian territories and stops discriminating, it will not be our enemy," he added.
This controversy comes amid fears among Tunisians that their country will catch up with Arab countries that normalized its relations with Israel before the settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the establishment of a Palestinian state with occupied Jerusalem as its capital.
These countries that were printed under US sponsorship are the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
Tunisia has previously announced that it is not interested in normalization with Israel, and that its position is not affected by international changes.
A Tunisian Foreign Ministry statement at the end of last year said, "As Tunisia respects the sovereign positions of various countries, it affirms that its position is consistent and principled, and changes in the international arena will never affect it."
The statement added that the position stems from the will of the Tunisian people and expresses their feelings of solidarity and absolute support for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.
suspicious timing
In response to Wanes’s statements, Abdel Wahab Al-Hani, head of the Al-Majd Party, wrote, “A strange and suspicious statement by former Foreign Minister Si Ahmed Wanis contradicts the constants of Tunisian diplomacy in opposing the Israeli military settlement occupation and its addiction to violating the village, collective and national rights of the Palestinian people.”
As for the former leader of the Long Live Tounes party, Maher Abbasi, he demanded that the Tunisian president withdraw Lounes's diplomatic passport and order the Minister of Justice to open an investigation against him.
And Tunisian deputies launched a campaign last year to criminalize normalization with Israel.
Local press investigations say that the past year witnessed a clear economic normalization between Israel and Tunisia, and that trade exchanges between the two sides amounted to tens of millions of dollars.